Rubber heel.



J. M. VAN HEUSEN.

RUBBER HEEL.

APPLICATION man MAR. 5. I915.

1, 1 40,635. Patented May 25, 1915.

INVENTOR ATTORNEYS invention, such as I IJ ED STATES PATENT OFFICE- JOHN M. VAN HEUSEN, OF JAMAICA PLAIN, MASSACHUSETTS,

nimnnn HEEL.

I Application filed March 5.

To all whomit may concern:

Be itknown that LJCHN ll-Lvas Hnusnn', a citiaen'of the United States, residing at Not 101 Robinwoodav'enue, Jamaica P ain, Massachusetts, ,haveJinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Rubber Heels; and ,I do hereby declare the' following to be a,'full, clear, and'exact'description of the ill enable others skilled in the art 'to whic it appertains to make and use the same. V

The many advantages of the rubber heel have been. so fully established and elaborately explained anddeveloped that it is no longernecessary, in the present state of the art, to look upon them as in any sense open to contention. Nevertheless, in spite of their. benefit: and. utility, it is undeniable that the extent of their use proportionately very-small ascompared with the ordinary, leather heel and great difiiculty is encoimtered in. materially increasing the number of users. a l r The main objection to the use of therub- 'dne' yvhichhas, been sufiicient in the great majoriigeoi to prevent its aoceptanoedies in: ,-,fact that it gives to the wearer the sensation that he iswalking with, a st a thy or felinetread, which is alike and" disagreeable to himself and startling and otherwise obnoxious to others; in sharp contrast to. the natural desire, both on the part of the wearer and on the part of others, that his presence -and a proach sbeemnifstedwin a decided and p ainly audible manner as in the customary intercourse of men The p of the present invention is to preserve Ee" advantages of the rubber heel, and et to deprive it of its furtive, muflied surre titious characterisfics, so that there sha v be nothing connecibd its' use which would suggest an unannounced, sly, covert or skullnng approiich. 'Tothis end, as will hereinafter more fully ap r, Lgmvide the rubber heslwirhsm adj lincc w ich will deprive it of cats-paw effect, while still preserving the cushioning action which is the foundzr tion of its utility. At the same time, the construction has neither the purpose nor efiect of the well known -fwearlates heretofore proposed for protecting eels of rubber and of leether from excesive wear, and, in' facig is'difierentiated therefrom by reasonoi the that the tread Specification of letters Patent.

1915. Serial No. 12,257.

element of my insert is of such a metal and of such a tread area that it will wear away m substantial coincidence with the adjacent rubber, as Wlll hereinafter more fully apear.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure,1 represents a bottom plan view, artly in section, of a rubber heel em ying the fundamental characteristic features of the invention, the heel shown in Fig. 1 being intended for use on the left shoe of the wearer; Fig. 2 represents a bottom plan view, the heel therein shown being intended for use on the right shoe of the wearer; Fig. 3 represents, in side elevation, and partial section, the heel portion of a boot or shoe provided with a rubber heel made in ac-- cordance with my invention; Fig. 4 represents a sectional view on a plan indicated by the line 4-4 of'Fig. 1; and Fi 5 represents a perspective view of the a junct hereinbefore referred to.

Similar letters of reference indicate similar parts throughout the several views.

Referring to the drawing, A indicates the heel portion of a boot or shoe to which is attached, in any usual or convenient manner the leather heel a rovided with the resilientheel section b. e rubber heel section b may be applied to the leather heel section a in any usual or preferred mannel; familiar to the art, as, for instance, by the countersunk nails 0 provided with metal washers (i, so as to make up a reliable structure consisting of a leather base with a subjacent tread portion of rubber of the desired elasticity established by practice as suitable for realizin the advantages of cushioning the tread o the heel of the wearer. Together with these main elements of the structure, I make use, for the purposes of the invention, of the adjunct hereinbefore referred to.

As shown in the drawing, this adjunct consists of a metal insert, of such a character that it will present an edge e flush with the bottom plane of the heel, and at the location which qbservation has shown to be the one which, in the great majority of cases. first comes in contact with the pavement, floor, or other surface upon which the wearer is walking. In the form shown,

this is accomplished by making the adjunct of a piece of steel cast or bent to present the edge e referred to and slightly inclined therefrom as indicated more fully in Fig. 4) to join a main body portion 7', which may be u-m-irled with an enlargement 9 having :1 mil hole 7:. I

The adjunct may be vulcanized in place and may rely for its permanence simply upon the vulcanization, or it mabe furl. e! secured against accidental dis llicement by driving a nail through the ho e h, as indicated in Fig. 3. It will be understood, however, that when the nail is employed, it shall not interfere with the freedom of movement of the plate or adjunct, for the reason that the adjunct is intended to be so related to the rubber heel as a whole that it will yield freely to the weight of the wearer and will not interfere with the normal function of the rubber heel, that is to say, the function of the wearer. At the same time, it is itself protected from excessive wearing by reason of its free yield, and neverthelws all of the advantages which it is the purpose of the invention to provide, including particularly and fimdamentally, the advantage of announcing the approach of the wearer in a manner racticall indist' ble from that of t e usual eather 1: ed shoe.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated, these combined effects are obtained by so mounting jnnct that its tread rtion will be supported by a large body 0 rubber which is flj g and which is compressed in the usual manner by the wearer, as he walks. In order to render this feasiblqthe metallic insert occupies a position aboht midwsyof the thicknessof the rubber heel andthe up turned end of the insert terminatesin the edge e hereinbefore referred to. A rocking motion of the metallic is thereby provided as. the wearer puts bis'heel upon the ground, to give the desiredwyield, to protect the tread portion from excessive wear, to permit it to wear neierthelQ mma nn sameuearm wullinzmlkc.

topics on! this-patent may be obtained for ml l the meta lie'insert or ad-' a practically uniform level of wear. As

hereinbefore noted; the yield of the insert materially contributes to this desired uniformity of weer, in addition to the function of not interfering substantially with the cushioning efiect of the rubber heel as an i entirety.

Yhat I (2111:2111 ded rubber rovi at its outer at that pJrtion yv-hich' first touches i ej "round in'the act of walkin' ,with a metallic tread element whose: surface is flush with the bottom of lghe heel and which is Correction in Letters Patent No. 1,140,635.}

It is hereby certified that in Letters Petent No. 1,140,635, granted May 25, 1915,

upon the application of John M. van Heusen, of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, for

an improvement in Rubber Heels, an error appears in the printed specification requiring correction as follows: Page 2, line 16, after the word function insert the words of qfording a reeilimt support to the tread; and that the said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the same may conform to i the record of the ease in the Patent Office.

Signed and sealed this 15th day of June, A. D., 1915.

ISEAL. 1 J. T. NEWTON,

Acting Commissioner of Patents. 

